Clown Loach

[fatguppy]

I have a 80 gallon tank with a mixture of:

2 x clown loach
2 x silver sharks
3 x swordtails
6 x penguin tetras
1 x catfish
1 x plec
3 x rosy barbs
2 x cherry barbs

I have been looking after fish for some time now although I have upgraded failry recently to the bigger tank and added the new larger fish. All the potentially larger fish are small at present.

My problem is that I CANNOT get rid of whitespot in the clown loach. I understand that they are susceptible to it but I have treated them about 5 times; upped the water temperature on advice from the lfs (a good one I hasten to add) by 2 degrees for 2 days and still it persists. I have been advised to get more clown loach to help them de-stress. I have no problem with this per se except that if the whitespot transfers itself to the new clown loach then I am simply exacerbating the problem.

Any other advice please - I would be so grateful as I am totally stumped at present!

Thanks

B)

 

[FroggFrogg]

I thought i was the only one with that problem. I have had white spot on my loach for ages. I have tried two different treatments etc and it just wont go, it killed my three other loaches. It is really annoying, the clown loach is the only thing with the whitespot. Im not much help but i do sympathise...

 

[The-Wolf]

what have you been treating with?

I have sucessfully treated clowns with FMG (NT-labs), which is sold for koi. in fact I'm treating our clowns at work with it now.
the doseage for tropical tanks is 1ml per foot of tank and treat for five days consecutivly. you will need to run an airstone during treatment as formalin eats up O2.

there is also a new strain of ich that is resistant to most brand name meds. The only thing I know that will cure that is cuprazin (waterlife) that is sold for marine white spot. Cuprazin is copper based and should be dosed at half stated on the bottle for tropicals and double the days.
I can't stress this enough overdoseing curpazin will wipe out you entire tank, so be careful if you use this.

I'd try FMG first and only then consider cuprazin.
250ml bottle of FMG is around £12 but well worth it.

HTH

 

[FroggFrogg]

I tried Protozin first off then switched to WS3 by King British...
Im going to try the Cuprazin but i haven't seen my last clown today so it may be too late..

 

[tttnjfttt]

Wolf - I've tried searching online for any info on the medicine resistant ich. Do you have an article on them or anything? Or was this just done throug observations and trial and error?

 

[harryman]

me and my friend had that problem aswell its so annoying i bought some treatment (anti white spot plus) and it killed all clown loaches and my friend said he wanted to use it so i did and it killed his, are they a weak fish as in like any change in the water (like my treatment) can kill them?

ive just given up on them cos they die to easy

 

[tttnjfttt]

Clown Loaches are considered sclaleess fish, so you generally need to treat them at half the dose. Not doing so could have helped contribute to their death.

 

[ey2006]

I agree with tttnjfttt, treating at full dosage will ultimately kill the loaches.

I think if white spot is treated early, it is not difficult to get rid off. Another tip would be to leave the tank lights off over the duration of the treatment, this seems to work better from what I've read - can anyone confirm this?

Cheers

 

[The-Wolf]

Wolf - I've tried searching online for any info on the medicine resistant ich. Do you have an article on them or anything? Or was this just done throug observations and trial and error?

no articles
mostly through observation and working in a lfs.
through that I've managed to talk to various reps, including one from interpet
who informs me that their companies research and development lab have come
across this strain and are studdying it with the intent on producing a suitable counter agent.

as with all diseases/parasites/viruses nature will eventually find a way to
counteract our steps to kill them.
I'm sure you have heard of some human ilnesses that are resistant to penicilling etc.

I did read about the possibility of a resistant strain on this very forum first,
but can't seem to find the actual topic.

 

[cane76]

i stopped keeping clowns after 3 ich outbreaks and i have not had it since.seems to me using full dose of meds is to much for them and using half dose doesnt cure the ich

 

[jarcher1390]

when ever they got white i added protizien worked for me

 

[mark7616]

one of my 3 clown loaches he is about 10" long and 4" high big isnt he

 

[TwoTankAmin31]

For an effective ich treatment for clowns, read here http/www.loaches.com/salt.html

 

[reddannyh]

I would take the advice and get more clowns, they are shoaling fish and therefore if taken out of the shoal they stress easy. The whitespot will probably spread initially, but as they 'de-stress' they will be much more easily treatable. I can't remember the name of the treatment I used but it had a picture of a clown loach on the box. I have found a good method as well is to does the tank with primafix and melafix as this will give them a stress coat and help to keep the whitespot away.

 

[FroggFrogg]

Ok first off i have treated full strength with WS3 and my loaches survived but i know that with some treatments you cannot dose full strength.
I too have spoke to a Waterlife rep and they suggested using 1 and a half times the dose for the new resistant strain, this was NOT for clown loaches however. In the same conversation i mentioned that Protozin irritated my ACF causing him to shed his skin. He suggested using Octozin as it does not contain copper and would control the whitespot.
There was a small piece on the new strain of whitespot in a recent isssue of PFK but it didnt go into great detail...
Anyway not that it matters now as i euthanised my last clown loach today. He was in a bad way and the whitespot had developed into a further bacterial infection of his eyes.
You win some you lose some ay